Savitar (Arrowverse)
Savitar, the self-proclaimed God of Speed, is the main antagonist of the third season of the CW's'' The Flash TV series. Savitar is an ancient, armor-wearing, powerful Speedster who was the first human ever granted Super Speed and access to the Speed Force. He declares himself as a God but under the high tech battle suit he is a mortal man. He was voiced by Tobin Bell, who also portrayed Jigsaw. In his human form, he was portrayed by Daniel Cudmore, who also portrayed Colossus from the ''X-Men movies, and was portrayed via motion-capture in his metal-like suit by stuntman Andre Tricoteux. Overview A prisoner to the Speed Force due to a battle with the Flash he lost in the future, Savitar returns to Star City to take revenge on Barry and the entire Team Flash which he holds responsible for his banishment. Savitar also intends to stop Barry before he can imprison him in the future. As his imprisonment prevents him from arriving on Earth-1 in the flesh, Savitar uses the Philosopher's Stone, to which he is bound, to take control over Julian Albert, creating the split personality Alchemy in the man. Through Albert, Savitar sets in motion an elaborate plan to escape the Speed Force. After Barry Allen, the Flash, has reset the Flashpoint timeline, Savitar starts handing meta-human powers to those who had it during Flashpoint. One of the recipients is Wally West who, by taking Savitar's gift, creates a special connection to Savitar. Although Albert is eventually cured, severing Savitar from his proxy and thus his influcence on Earth, Savitar starts appearing to Wally through the connection between the two. Furthermore, Barry and his team manage to contact Savitar in the Speed Force using Julian as a medium. From Savitar, they learn that he deeply despises all of them for what they will do to him in the future. He makes a prophecy regarding the fate of the team, claiming that in the events that lead up to the future creation of Savitar and Savitar's imprisonment, one team member will betray the team, one will fall, one will suffer a fate worse than death. In addition to Savitar's prophecy, Barry has to fight off the impending danger of Iris West's death, because he saw Savitar murder her when he accidentally raced to the future. From his Speed Force banishment, Savitar uses Wally's youth and ego to his own advantage, eventually manipulating the young Wally into opening a breach into the Speed Force under the pretext to throw the Philosopher's Stone into it. Although Wally believes that this prevents Savitar from returning, it in truth gives Savitar everything he needs to leave the Speed Force. Savitar emerges on Earth-1 and, in return, Wally is dragged into the Speed Force to take Savitar's place. Free at last, Savitar is now able to shape the events to lead to the future he foresaw, including the death of Iris and Savitar's creation. Characteristics Personality Savitar's strength as a speedster and a force to be reckoned with seems to have given him a God complex, viewing himself as far superior to Barry Allen's other foes. Being extremely powerful, he looks down on other speedsters as inferior. However, despite his claims, he maintains a constant and pathological desire to prove himself superior to all others, thinking that any speedster with enough power will be able to challenge him and defeat him, making him more insecure, compared to other foes Barry has faced. Like many other supervillains in superhero-based media, Savitar's ego appears to be his own worst enemy, as he loathes the idea of anyone becoming more powerful than him, willing to taunt Barry and arrogantly downgrade his many accomplishments and viewing him as selfish due to messing with time and creating Flashpoint. While possessing Julian, he ordered Team Flash to bow before him despite that he was powerless to do anything to make them believe they should. He also seems to be a stickler to formalities, addressing Wally West as "Wallace" and choosing not to kill Barry immediately after escaping the Speed Force, thinking he should wait until he has finished off Iris right before his eyes. He also addressed H.R. as "the fake Wells", and noted how ironic it was that he would be the one who survives everything, his cowardice being his shield, which Savitar considered to be pathetic. He is extremely short-tempered, obsessed with making the Flash suffer; Eobard Thawne had also planned this, but unlike Savitar, he very-rarely lost his temper, remaining calm and collected. Savitar views Barry as the villain due to being imprisoned in the Speed Force, saying that he never sought conflict with him, but he had still lost everything to Barry and wanting to take it all back. His desire to kill Barry is not exactly as simple as he wished it was, instead deciding to kill Iris right before his eyes to give him a taste of how dangerous his actions are, suggesting that, for some reason, he cannot (or will not) kill Barry directly like he wants to. Though Savitar's hatred for Team Flash in general runs deep, his aforementioned formalities seem to show that he doesn't wish death upon all of Team Flash as he claims. While possessing Julian, he looked to Iris and apologized in advance that he has to kill her. In addition, he tells Barry that he has dealt with pain all his life, as the deaths of his parents had a huge effect on them, and saying that he wouldn't be able to bare what's coming, and that he has apparently been with him from the very beginning. He called Barry selfish for his actions, particularly his creation of Flashpoint, even though he'd tried his hardest to fix his mistakes. Powers and Abilities * Mutated Physiology: Upon touching the Philosopher's Stone, he immediately went through a metamorphosis, transforming him into a taller metallic humanoid with immense supernatural powers related to speed and motion. Despite this robot-like appearance, he still remains a man, but the exact metal and composition of his costume has yet to be revealed. He has a sharp blade that can protrude from his arm, which he uses to kill his victims; since it is a part of him, when Barry sawed it off with his powers, Savitar found it too painful to stand, forcing him to flee. * Speed Force Connection: Once a human being, Savitar found an ancient supernatural artifact called the Philosopher's Stone. Upon touching it, Savitar gained a very powerful connection to the Speed Force, and has even mastered all of his Speed Force abilities. * Superhuman Speed: '''Like all Speedsters, Savitar is immensely fast. According to Jay though, Savitar is the fastest Speedster of them all. ** '''Superhuman Reflexes: His perception and reflexes are so advanced that he sees Speedsters, moving at superhuman speeds, as how human beings see normal men running. This allows him to react to them much easily. ** Electrokinesis: He has light-blue lightning coming off him when he runs, similarly to Zoom. ** Dimensional Travel: He can travel between dimensions. However, due to being trapped in the Speed Force, he cannot manage this for too long. ** Superhuman Strength: He possesses superhuman strength, enough to toss and lift full-grown and well-built men without any distress at all. Using his speed and strength together, he can create powerful superhuman physical blows. ** Superhuman Stamina: He has an almost limitless amount of stamina and vitality. ** Accelerated Healing: He has regenerative powers, which might be superior to an average Speedster's regenerative prowess. He instantly recovered from a powerful frost bite from Killer Frost, whereas a normal speedster would require a certain amount of time to recover. ** Telepathic Powers: He is mentally connected to the Philosopher's Stone. So if a being comes in contact with it, he is able to create telepathic links with them, as he did with Julian Albert, transforming him into Alchemy. He also seems to be able to prevent Julian Albert from remembering his time as Alchemy whenever he becomes a mere civilian again. *** Illusions Projection: He was able to create illusions of Julian Albert's late sister and Cisco's late brother to manipulate them. *** Visions Projection: According to his followers, who have called him the "Dark Lord", he is able to show them the future, allowing one particular follower to point out Killer Frost as being "great" in the future. Weaknesses * Philosopher's Stone Connection: His presence on any world is limited, as he is connected to the Philosopher's Stone, the source of his powers. He was trapped in a small stone box for a long time, and was only freed when Julian Albert opened it in 2012. When the Stone is put in the box and closed, he will disappear suddenly, as shown when Barry shut it in "The Present"; Savitar was about to kill Jay Garrick of Earth-3, but he disappears just as the Stone was locked away in the box. As it turns out, he needed the Philosopher's Stone in its entirety to be released from his prison in the Speed Force, and any broken-off piece of the Stone would have to be thrown into the Speed Force too for it to work. * Speed Force Connection: '''Despite being the fastest speedster seen so far, he has been unable to project himself physically for too long due to his Speed Force imprisonment, forcing him to rely on Alchemy to carry out his will. He was trapped in the Speed Force by Barry long enough to "lose his mind many times over", and every time he manages to get himself on the physical plane of existence, he would just get sucked back into the Speed Force again. However, he has managed to escape this prison by tricking Wally West into taking his place as prisoner, allowing him to stay on the physical plane of existence for as long as he wants. * '''Extreme Cold: Extremely-cold temperatures can temporarily stun and weaken him, a weakness shared with Barry and other speedsters. Caitlin Snow was able to stun him this way. Trivia * * Due to a lack of information about Savitar, it was assumed at the time that the initial trailer was released that the Rival was actually Savitar. * Savitar is the fifth villainous speedster encountered by Barry and his team, before him came Eobard Thawne, Zoom, Trajectory and the Rival. Additionally, Savitar is the third speedster to be the main villain of a season. * Savitar is the third Arrow-verse villain to be tied directly to a mythological story, the other being Silver Banshee from Supergirl and Vandal Savage from DC's Legends of Tomorrow. * Savitar has never seemed to cross paths with the Time Wraiths or their new enforcer, the Black Flash, despite that he'd been able to escape the Speed Force and the Time Wraiths exist to prevent such events. * Savitar is the fourth villain in the Arrowverse that is fought by more than two heroes at once, having fought off Barry, Jay Garrick and Wally West in "The Present"; Eobard Thawne was the first, (defeated by Barry, the Green Arrow and Firestorm), the second was Vandal Savage, (defeated by Barry, Green Arrow, Hawkman and Hawkgirl, then later again by the Legends team), and the third was the Dominators, defeated by Team Arrow, Team Flash, the Legends and Supergirl of Earth-38 all teaming up. However, Savitar was able to beat the three speedsters himself. * Savitar has a large amount of traits in common with Zoom. ** Savitar uses breaches at will like Zoom did, only difference is Savitar uses them to get to different places on the same Earth whereas Zoom used them to get to different Earths. ** Savitar has "special plans" for Caitlin Snow. Zoom was in love with Caitlin. ** Savitar has "special plans" for Jesse Quick. Zoom's plan was to extort Harry into stealing Barry's speed by kidnapping Jesse. ** Savitar's white lightning is similar to Zoom's blue lightning. ** Savitar is known for traveling between Earths to kill speedsters he sees as a threat to his own reign. Zoom had traveled to other Earths and killed other speedsters as he desired to be the best, almost destroying the entire Multiverse to prove it. ** Savitar seeks to command armies of meta-humans from the Flashpoint timeline to conquer Earth-1. Zoom commanded numerous meta-humans from Earth-2 which he tried to use to conquer Earth-1. ** Both have been imprisoned in the Speed Force. * Savitar has been met with mixed reception from fans and critics alike. Most of the criticism has been directed towards his visual appearance. He has also been noted for having many traits in common with Zoom (as mentioned above) ''and Reverse-Flash, and isn't very distinct from either villains. The producers have also been criticized for using another speedster as the primary villain of the third season, after already using speedsters as the primary villains of the first two seasons. * While other speedsters such as Reverse-Flash and Zoom are significantly faster than Barry, Savitar is only interested in targeting Barry, for in the future, he will one day trap him in the Philosopher's Stone. * The prohecy for Team Flash that Savitar had said to Barry has been revealed: * "'One Shall Betray you" '- Caitlan Snow who kept a small piece of the stone and later becoming with Killer Frost. * "'One shall fall" '- Iris's fate of being killed by Savitar. * '"One will suffer a fate far worse then death" '''- Wally being imprisoned in the Speed Force prison made by future flash and later having his spine crushed by Savitar. 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